Hard-Fi - Fire In The House

Hard-Fi have been turning heads recently, and for all the right reasons. Let's add another reason then, and that's that their new single Fire In The House - the second from third album Killer Sounds - is all kinds of fabulous.

Unlike the bold, striding swagger of the Jay-Z/Stone Roses aping Good For Nothing, this feels more subtle, more melancholic, but equally drenched in the sounds of the past. Half storming Brit-pop anthem, half moody synth epic dredged up from a shady nightclub, this is Hard-Fi doing what Hard-Fi do best.

Remember when Hard To Beat and Living For The Weekend came out, charming a nation with their perfect twinning of shouty indie credibility and big pop hooks. It felt so effortlessly spot on, so in the moment, so much like songs for the time - and Fire In The House feels the same.

Good For Nothing was aptly, rather good - great even. But this is on a whole other level - epic is a word that has been immeasurably cheapened over the last few years, but Fire In The House *is* undeniably epic.

The real test, of course, will be if the album can remain of a similar quality. Consistency, the great holy grail that so many aim for. Of the bands of Hard-Fi's generation, only a few remain, even fewer still delivering on the same scale. Kasabian have managed it, remaining eternally popular - and Fire In The House is exactly the kind of track that will ensure Hard-Fi stay up there with them in the premiere league of British rock acts.

Seeing the band perform at T4 On The Beach the other weekend, they felt like the band you always knew they had in them - not just Stars of CCTV, but real, genuine stars.

Fire In The House is released on the 14th August.